Do you love me

Casey 2022-03-25 09:01:20

Like all theatrical film directors, Christian Mongi has his own care for his native Romania. He was amazed that Romania has 90% of the Orthodox population. Because, in his view, society does not look like a paradise that has been re-cleansed by the church. On the contrary, people begin to diverge and become impetuous. The church has always only paid attention to superficial things, and will only spend its time building churches and recruiting believers to do sacrifices. There is no deeper manifestation of the value of religion, so that everyone understands and loves each other. Therefore, the filming of "Beyond the Mountain" may be a discussion of this kind of issue. The story is based on real life. The two protagonists, Alina and Vicchia, were childhood friends who grew up in an orphanage. After leaving the orphanage, Alina turned to God and lived in the Orthodox Church outside the mountains, while Vecchia worked in Germany. Vicaki misses her best friend due to her life in a foreign land. So she went back to Romania and wanted to live with Alina.
But things have changed. Alina is not the Alina she used to be. Because of Orthodox teachings, she couldn't keep Vyaki in the church any longer. So Alina, who loves God and Vecchia deeply, hesitated as if facing a dilemma about her relationship. On the one hand, he had sworn to serve the Lord forever and stay by the Lord's side forever; but on the other hand, Vyaki longed for her so much. So her only solution was to make Vicchia a nun too. But Vecchia doesn't like this, she thinks all priests and nuns are lunatics, idiots. She was only told to confess her sins and repent, but she never understood her real needs. So Vecchia becomes hysterical and disrupts the church. He even knocked over the icon, trying to pull Alina back to his side. Facing this scene, the pastor sent her to a mental hospital first, and then was sent back to continue to fight. In desperation, the pastor had to "entrust her to God", and led the nuns to tie Vekkiah to the cross and use the church ritual of "reciting the scriptures" to make her clean. Vecchia was tortured, and finally died in the arms of Alina who wanted to let her go secretly during a week of imprisonment.
Here we see two equally restless hearts. One comes from faith, the other comes from human nature. Human nature is anxious about unobtainable love; and faith is anxious about "why don't you believe". But in any case, we also see that there is nothing but evil in it. So no matter who you are, no matter whether your position is good or evil, in the vast ocean of people, there are only two ends of the battle left. So Romania, even every corner, fell into an inexorable vortex. This vortex does not originate from religion, society, system, or civilization. It comes from the fact that everyone no longer tolerates each other with love, and no longer sincerely considers each other's needs. Vecchia despises everything that is hostile to possessing Alina; the priests and nuns are fed up with this stubborn eccentric. In the self-centeredness where the ground is a prison, people seem to be in harmony, but they are so indifferent that they cannot tolerate a trace of consideration. So, when a preacher tells you "God so loved the world," everyone is actually asking the same question in their hearts.
Well, do you love me?
Christian Mongi knows that not 90% of his countrymen are in love with each other. Hence he said: Indifference to others is more sinful than your indifference to original sin. At the end of the film, the director used a five-minute long shot to express his endless thoughts. He said that he wanted to use long shots to wash away the sadness in the world. So the camera has been fixed on the rear of the police car after the arrest of the believers. Afterwards, the camera gradually zoomed in towards the window, looking at the snow-covered Romania outside the window, like an aria floating in the air, no one can redeem anyone.
'Cause we've all lost the truth of love

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Extended Reading

Beyond the Hills quotes

  • Priest: The man who leaves and the man who comes back are not the same.